Paychex

PAYX on Nasdaq. Paychex sells payroll and human resources services to small and midsize businesses. Market value $35.5bn.

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Price checks use the past 12 months to August 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to May 2026.

Should I look at this?

Worth a closer look

Read what could go wrong

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

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Cash yield
past 12 months to August 2026
5.6%fair

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $5.61 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to August 2026
15.4×full

You pay 15.4 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to May 2026
41.3%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 41 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 97 of 100. Price score: 86 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$101.02 a share, 18% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $85.45 to $129.24.

Dividend: 4.4% a year

Paid every year for at least 5 years

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

1.5
1.6
1.7
1.7
2.3
2.0
2022202320242025202612 monthsto Aug '26
Revenue
$4.6bn$5.0bn$5.3bn$5.6bn$6.5bn
Operating margin
39.9%40.6%41.2%39.6%38.6%
Debt to equity
0.260.230.221.201.22
Shares outstanding
0.36bn0.36bn0.36bn0.36bn0.36bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)8 of 9
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • Debt1.22× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 9.9% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat

The quarter to August 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $1.6 billion last quarter, up 6% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $430 million, up 12% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 39 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 38 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $2 billion, up from $1.9 billion.
  • 1% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
  • Debt is $4 billion more than cash, down from $4.2 billion a year ago.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
November 2024$1.3bn
February 2025$1.5bn
May 2025$1.4bn
August 2025$1.5bn
November 2025$1.6bn
February 2026$1.8bn
May 2026$1.6bn
August 2026$1.6bn
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
November 2024$413m
February 2025$519m
May 2025$297m
August 2025$384m
November 2025$395m
February 2026$560m
May 2026$421m
August 2026$430m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
18 December 2026
Last annual report (10-K)
17 July 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
24 December 2026

Who owns it

8 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 7 last quarter. 1,528 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

2 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

In the last 12 months, 2 insiders bought $197,260 of shares on the open market. 5 sold $4m.

  • Schrader Robert L.
    Sr. VP, CFO
    Sold
    Date
    20 July 2026
    Shares
    2,600
    Price
    $115.09
    Value
    $299,234
  • Simmons Christopher C
    VP, Controller & Treasurer
    Sold
    Date
    17 July 2026
    Shares
    2,615
    Price
    $115.92
    Value
    $303,131
  • MUCCI MARTIN
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    14 July 2026
    Shares
    25,000
    Price
    $109.93
    Value
    $3m
  • TUCCI JOSEPH M
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    26 June 2026
    Shares
    3,907
    Price
    $98.25
    Value
    $383,863
  • Roaldsen Elizabeth
    Sr. Vice President
    Sold
    Date
    13 May 2026
    Shares
    459
    Price
    $90.00
    Value
    $41,310
  • DOODY JOSEPH
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    4 February 2026
    Shares
    1,000
    Price
    $98.76
    Value
    $98,760
  • BONADIO TOM
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    4 February 2026
    Shares
    1,000
    Price
    $98.50
    Value
    $98,500

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 17 Jul 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 24 Sep 2026 and 2 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

What changed in the risks this year

Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.

  • Our use of AI technology and the incorporation of AI technology into our solutions carries risks and challenges that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

    Could happen
    We have and are increasingly incorporating AI capabilities into many of our solutions, enabled by WISE, and internal processes to enable our customers and our employees to improve efficiency, scalability, and productivity. The integration of AI into our solutions presents risks and challenges, including that we may be unable to integrate AI technologies into our solutions when or as we expect, that our customers do not welcome or realize the anticipated benefits of such technologies or may use AI technologies from other providers instead of using our services, that new AI technologies may disrupt our industry adding market pressure, that our AI-based solutions could produce inaccurate results or have other unintended consequences, or that our AI-based solutions may expose us to lawsuits, regulatory investigations, or other proceedings, and subject us to legal liability as well as brand and reputational harm, all of which could negatively affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
    Read more
  • Our use of AI technology and the incorporation of AI technology into our solutions carries risks and challenges that could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.

    Could happen
    While AI technologies may offer significant benefits, they also create risks and challenges. Although we implement measures to address the accuracy and appropriate use of AI tools, including internal AI policies and training, these efforts may not always be successful. Use of AI tools that introduce bias, errors, hallucinations (false, misleading, or fabricated text purporting to be factual), as well as any failure by our employees, contractors, or partners to adhere to our AI policies, or inappropriate use of AI, could result in violations of confidentiality obligations, ethical considerations, laws, or regulations, jeopardize our intellectual property rights, or expose our solutions or business systems to defects and malware, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
    Read more

Read it in the annual report

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.